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Millions begin travel in annual Idul Fitri exodus
Major seaports and toll roads are packed, while airports and bus terminals are also full of travellers looking forward to reuniting with their families.
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This aerial photo shows travelers crowding the access out of Jakarta, in Karawang on April 19, 2023, as they head out to their hometowns to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families.
(AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
O
n motorcycles, cars, buses, planes or by boat, millions of Indonesians are travelling to their hometowns in the annual Idul Fitri holiday exodus that is expected to peak by Thursday.
Major seaports and toll roads are packed, while airports and bus terminals are also full of travellers looking forward to reuniting with their families.
This year marks the first "mudik", as the annual exodus is known, since COVID-19 restrictions were removed at the end of 2022 in the country.
Transportation Ministry has predicted up to 123 million people will travel for Idul Fitri this year, up from 85 million estimated to have made the trip last year.
Some 18 million people are forecast to leave the Greater Jakarta area alone, enduring hours of traffic or congested airports and seaports to celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with families.
Authorities have temporarily made some highways leaving the capital one way to ease congestion.
"I’m happy to meet my parents after quite a while and to be able to perform Eid prayer together," Muhammad Naufal Vadina told AFP by phone on Wednesday.
